Sinclair makes his big comeback in 2025 with an explosive tour and a Best Of celebrating 30 years of groove. Passing through this Friday, October 31, 2025, at the Théâtre Lino Ventura in Nice, this iconic funk artist reinvents his universe between stage energy and musical introspection. Interview.
The Théâtre Lino Ventura will host Sinclair this Friday, October 31, 2025 for an event concert marking his big return to the stage. Surrounded by a new band and carried by a renewed energy, the artist will offer a unique show mixing his latest songs with his iconic tracks. Passing through Nice, this return to basics is part of a national tour accompanying the release of his Best Of Studio, celebrating more than 30 years of career between funk, audacity, and musical maturity.
2025 marks your big return to the stage. What prompted you to hit the road again after a long period away from touring?
“I think I had lost faith and was trapped in that mindset until the day my associate told me there were concert requests. I agreed to get back on stage with a whole new project without really knowing if the audience wanted it, and the response was very clear. We sold out a Cigale in Paris a year before… I think I needed a big electric shock.
You say the stage is your second home. What has changed in your approach to live performances today compared to your beginnings?
The stage used to scare me because the change of state it plunged and still plunges me into was hard to manage. The Mr. Hyde side… Today I am so at peace with it that I approach the stage much more naturally and with greater musical mastery. The voice has evolved too, more in its place.
You talk about an “unprecedented live project” with a new band. What distinguishes this formation from previous ones?
Today there are six of us on stage and we approach music with a different hue. There is a cello, a baritone sax, and we don’t use any computers with sequences. It might sound old-school, but instead, I feel like it’s a return to fully played music. Inevitably, as I have evolved and I write the arrangements it is reflected in the style too. The music is more complete than before.
How do you select the artists who accompany you on this tour? Can you introduce them to us?
I chose musicians who live in the south near me and share the same philosophy, which is a lot of work and little conflict… gentleness. On guitar there’s Antoine Salem, a great guitarist who spent time in Los Angeles and now lives in Arles. Julien Boursin is on keyboards, an amazing self-taught musician, he lives 1.5 hours away from us and shares the same visions of music and life. The two brothers Thibault and Yohan Akrich, bass and drums. These two musicians are phenomena, they are the pillars of the tour and live in Nîmes. Finally, there is Fabien Kisoka on sax and vocals with whom I have already toured, an incredible sound and a fantastic presence.
You mention offering a “variety of different colors” to the public. What emotions or messages do you want to convey through this new tour?
I believe my music is made to vibrate, it’s primarily positive vibration. With this tour, I mix well-known songs, singles, and recent tracks that they will discover. I compose my setlist like a movie script. The idea is to travel for 1h40, being immersed in a real musical journey. There’s a lot of music and things to listen to… it’s sensory.
Your Best Of Studio has been available since June 27. How did you select the 21 tracks that make it up, between classics, unreleased, and remixes?
I put myself in the shoes of someone who might have forgotten my work or who might have lost the CDs. So, I included the iconic tracks and also more recent songs that define me more today. I also included demos, scratch versions of famous songs, and unreleased tracks from different eras. I wanted to give more than just the album songs and also show that sometimes certain tracks get lost along the way like “la rivière” (unreleased track from 2006) or that some arrangements change radically when passing to the final stage of recording “Supernova Superstar” (demo on the best of).
You say you haven’t used any computer despite being passionate about new technologies. How do you see the arrival of Artificial Intelligence in the process of creating musical works?
AI is a fascinating tool if used as an assistant for long and tedious tasks, or in an experimental research domain. I have used the early models a lot for creating images, before they became popular and widely used. However, when it comes to music, I like it less… I find the way models are used vulgar. There is inevitably a brilliant middle-ground that will open to us. The key is to know what we desire: to do, make, and approach our creative light? Or smoke cigarettes and let the machine do it…
Funk remains at the heart of your musical DNA. How do you manage to reinvent it in a more eclectic universe?
Funk, soul, it’s just a label. My music is above all music that swings, that grooves… it’s round and physical. The rest are adjectives. I listen to a lot of things without any barrier, without any judgment on origin or direction… I listen and if it speaks to me, I embrace it. It’s like the people I meet, no matter where they come from, what they worship, or eat, as long as the connection is there, I embrace it. And my music draws from all of this… So it evolves while keeping its roots somewhere in the blues.
A few words for the Niçois audience who will come to see you at the Théâtre Lino Ventura? Do you know the place? The city?
I know Nice and the theater, of course, I’ve always found this city beautiful. I’ve been there many times and although I live in the south, it’s not the same south in Nice, we are close to Italy, and we are really on the Mediterranean coast… So it will be an exotic yet familiar journey! Can’t wait to play there anyway.”
